Hi,
Was wondering if anyone else has had this problem after their fusion. One year ago I had a double fusion with cages and screws, rods ect. Anyway, I always had low blood pressure before the surgery and I never had a problem with sweating at all. Mt GP diagnosed me with Adrenal Fatigue. However most people with adrenal fatigue have low blood pressure.(I did the saliva test for the adrenal diagnoses)) I am on high blood pressure meds now. I have excessive pain in my back and I am wondering if there isn't something wrong that is causing the sweating and high blood pressure. I have read something about if there is a problem in the spine it can cause these symtoms. So just need some input if anyone has any ideas on this. I do have an appt. next month foe an MRI. THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING. babyboomer

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

Hello Babyboomer,

The only light I can shed on the subject is that there is a direct correlation between the bodies sympathetic nervous system response and pain levels.

I know that when I'm in a great deal of pain I seem to get what I consider a hot flash...just an overwhelming inner heat in my body that results in excessive persperation and this coming from someone who rarely sweats. I've noticed that when I'm in a great deal of pain that I have a very hard time in keeping my body temperature stable...it seems I'm either sweating buckets or freezing and chilled.

I would try doing some research on the sympathetic nervous system and it's response to pain and see if your symptoms are similar to what you are finding.

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

Have you thought about checking for sugar diabetes? I had the same thing happen after the same exact surgery and I am now diabietic after all of the events from the surgery...

The doc told me that the pancrease was working overtime due to the surgery and I am still taking actose as well as another diabetic medecine. Since the surgery; the blood sugar has slowly went up and I have had to add the 2nd medecine recently.

I would think that your doctor has looked into this? Being Diabetic is not the end of the world; one just has to watch what they eat....

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

I have to agree with gracefulone, I too get extremely hot and sweat or I am freezing and this is the summer. At night I'm all covered up then all the covers come off and this goes on all night, during the day too. I never asked my doctor about it, I just figured I was having hot flashes, never figuring it could have something to do with the surgery.

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

I usually have very extremely low blood pressure, but pain increases it.

I had major hot and cold flashes, I think it was the oxycontin or something related to the surgery this lasted a few months. I would wake up dripping sweat, take off all my clothes open the window, wake up freezing put on all my clothes and ten blankets. NOne of this was an easy thing either right after fusion

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

Anytime you have any sort of actual spinal surgery it is entirely possible to also damage the sympathetic nervous system since the chain actually runs down along the outside of the both sides of the actual column itself.this could directly affect the para sympathetic too.i ended up somehow with SNS damage from my spinal cord surgery but have heard of others who just had a fusion done and also ended up with it too.have you noticed ANY changes at all with either one of your eyes in any way?any drooping of either the upper or lower lids? a pupil that stays pretty much constricted while the other appear to be a bit larger?this is called horners syndrome.this can occur when the SNS takes a hit.i now have this in my L eye.

do a quick bit of research on the SNS and the para and compare your symptoms to what these areas actually govern,you may find even more issues going on than just the more prominent ones.just a suggestion as one possiblity.Marcia

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

I'm with mewcamaro on this.

I first saw this in terminal cancer patients near their end when I was a young teenager. In less than 2 seconds they would go from completely dry - to completely wet. Sometimes I could hear a slight wimper from the person. It was like you blinked and were somewhere else. It was hard for the brain to comprehend the change.

There have been times in the past that I was riding in a car-pool van that we hit a pot-hole. I was instantly drenched; just like you had dipped me in a lake. Once i was talking with the person next to me; she had turned away just as we hit the hole; she turned around when I yelped; and she just could not believe I went from totally dry to completely soaking wet in a matter of a second or two. I had sweated completely thru my suit coat and sweat was dripping down the outside. She pointed this out to me by wiping some off with her finger.

__________________
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". - Albert Einstein

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

I've always heard that your blood pressure goes up when in pain. It has happened to me in the past. It's odd that now I am in a lot of pain and my pressure has been normal the past few times. When it is high the dr. usually makes me sit there 15 minutes and takes it again to be sure it is really high. I have been getting a lot of hot flashes too the past year. But I am post gastric bypass and it happens when I eat something that my stomach doesn't like. Plus I am 42 so who knows. They say pre-menopause. Never heard the link of sweating and the back. It is interesting. I will look into it.

Re: Developed high blood pressure and excessive sweating after surgery!

Hey all.
This has been very interesting. I am going to look into the Sympathetic Nervous System . I do think it could be due to the adrenal glands(as far as sweating) but not the blood pressure. My Dr. explained that your adrenal glands can overload when too much stress is put on the body and "MIND". This causes adrenal fatigue. It can be very serious if they would happen to quit working. I take meds for it. But I still have terrible sweating. And stress (plus pain)has a lot to do with it probably. However, I am not convinced its all adrenal. Feelbad--what you said makes sense and I am going to mention this to my Dr. I don't know if there is anything that can acually be done about it.
I think there may be some issues with my hardware too. And I may find this out when I have the MRI done. This is a great site to log on to. boomer